Letters to the editor: Dec. 5, 2015
Extend tax credits for working poor
The face of poverty is not what you expect since 2008. It is my face or your neighbor’s face. As a military wife and now as a divorcee, financial struggle is familiar to me and others.
New census data shows that one in seven people, one in five children, live at or below the poverty line. Many of these Americans work 40 hours a week and support their families.
As we face another budget talk and the prospect of businesses having tax cuts extended or made permanent, the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit should be extended and made permanent, as well.
The EITC and the Child Tax Credit are pro-work credits. They were instrumental in raising 9.2 million people, including 5.2 million children, out of poverty in 2014. These credits have been championed by Republicans and Democrats, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has stated that the plan in his budget calls to expand these tax credits to working individuals ages 21 and up.
As a divorced parent of three special-needs children, these tax credits assist families like mine afford the unknown expenses of their care or to fill the gap in my wages when I have to miss work to tend to their needs.
We have to send a message to our congressional leaders that we need to look at policy that can help Americans, including fixing the gap in EITC by expanding it for adults without children in the home. This should include empty-nesters, the only population in the U.S. tax code taxed into into poverty.
Now is the chance for Americans to remind Congress that families and the American worker should come first in all discussions when considering tax credits and breaks for corporations.
Yolanda M. Gordon
Fort Mill
Use prayer to keep refugees out of U.S.
I believe that now is definitely the time for Christians to pray that those Middle East refugees not come into our country with the possibility of those crazy people being among them (you know their name).
It may be possible that the president (whom I have no ill will toward) is unknowingly a pawn in the hands of Satan to do his will. The scripture says that the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. His will is being done in the Middle East, but my prayer is that it will not come into this country.
Just this past Sunday, there was a word from Jimmy Swaggart’s church that said God will hold back the storm so that the last days effort to save souls will be fulfilled. My belief is that the word spoken means that God will keep this nation safe from those influenced by Satan who do harm to people.
The almighty God of the Holy Bible is the only hope we have for every aspect of American life.
Marty Boone
Fort Mill
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This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Letters to the editor: Dec. 5, 2015."